Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

 

Grace awoke the next morning feeling that something had changed between her and her best friend since she had arrived in town. She quietly rolled over in bed so she was facing Jesse; careful not to wake him. He looked quite handsome as he lay there sleeping, she thought; a smile forming on her beautiful face; beautiful despite the many scrapes and scratches she had received on her recent journey, though she wasn’t thinking about that at this moment. That was a part of her life that she wished to put behind her as fast as she could do so. Now she was thinking about the fact that she could possibly be falling in love with the man presently sharing her bed. The man she had known as her best friend for almost her entire life.

Perhaps the universe had been trying to tell her something all along and – now that she could see past her own nose – she was finally beginning to hear the true message meant to be delivered; that the love of her life had been right in front of her the whole time and she had been so busy not listening that she hadn’t noticed until now. All of a sudden it simply felt…right, natural. She truly did believe that everything in life happens for a reason; even the smallest, seemingly insignificant things. She couldn’t help but think about everything she and her lifelong best friend had experienced together and, when she added up all the individual moments, she felt as if the numbers were telling her that he had been and continued to be a constant in her life; someone who had been there to support her no matter what the situation. He was the only one who had suffered with her through it all and not been scared away by her troubled life. He had embraced it with her instead.

Her musings were cut short by the whine of her dog, already up and standing by the bedroom door; impatient to be let outside. This woke Jesse as well, who gave her a sweet, but impish, smile as she got out of the bed and headed downstairs with Casey. He took this time to quickly wash his face and brush his teeth and hair; obviously having some of the same thoughts Grace had just been having before he awoke. Pulling on a pair of shorts he dug from his overnight bag, he also headed down the stairs and walked back to the kitchen; looking for something to cook for breakfast; not wanting her to have to worry about anything like everyday chores. She still needed rest so she could heal.

It was the start of a gorgeous North Carolina day; the air cool and dry this morning; the sun beaming and warm as it rose. Her loyal pet was enjoying very much being back home; no longer seeming afraid of the house, but comfortable and behaving more like her normal self. She appeared relatively un-phased by the events of the past few days. Grace found it amazing and again she was jealous of her dog; wishing it were so simple for people, for her; though she did find herself astonishingly removed from her feelings during and directly following her harrowing ordeal. In a strange way, it was as if all of it had been nothing but a bad dream; a nightmare from which she eventually awoke; making all the fear just melt away. Whatever the explanation, it mattered little to her. All that mattered was the brand new feeling of happiness with which she was now endowed.

The only two things she had on her agenda for the day were to go to Weston and pick up her car – now that police had retrieved the keys from Michael’s pocket – and go visit her cousin in the hospital; who was no longer slumbering, but ready to begin making sense of the many facts of which she had only very recently been made aware. She could imagine how difficult the road ahead would be for Adrienne as well. All she could do was be there to support her; for she was now without parents just like Grace. It was looking more and more like Chris Devereaux would be spending the rest of his life in prison and maybe that was warranted after all. One thing was certain, also, and that was that no one in this town would ever see Caroline Deveraux again. She felt sure Adrienne wouldn’t miss her and she wouldn’t, either.

The most important subject she wished to speak with her cousin about was the question that had been most exigent in her mind since she had read about the secret that had been kept from her. The question that had the potential to be helpful to the case pending against her father; only not helpful to him or the defense, but to the prosecution. If Adrienne’s secret had anything to do with her and Genevieve getting shot, it would certainly provide motive for the heinous crime. It was driving her crazy wondering what the big secret was and in what way it involved her. She spent plenty of time trying to guess, yet came up empty. Who was the ‘He’ her cousin had described in her diary? Was it her father after all? Grace ruminated. She could not fathom who else it could be. Aurora was not a big town and the only two men she and Adrienne had in common were Jesse and her Uncle Chris. Clearly Jesse had since been ruled out by her as a man who would coerce or force anyone to do anything; such as keeping a terrible secret from his best friend or anything else hurtful or devious of which one could conceive. He had been questioned by Detective Scheffield and was cleared of any suspicion about him being involved in the shooting. Grace was assuming that his alibi must have checked out as well; so that left her uncle. It simply had to be Uncle Chris, she thought; feeling a pang of anguish for poor Adrienne and through what she would be going in the near future.

She spent a long time outside with Casey; simply enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. The freedom wasn’t bad either, she discerned. Her best friend joined the two in the back yard; already planning out the landscaping he would do if she approved; which he felt certain she would. It was just a nice morning; the beginning of a beautiful day; a day that seemed to have newfound feelings floating all around; desperate to be set free by that first moment of admission. The only question lingering was who would be the one to make the notorious ‘first move’. Obviously Jesse wasn’t going to do it or he probably would have done so by now; for she was pretty sure he had been in love with her for a long time. So she would have to make the first move; the thought of it making her nervous. She wondered if that feeling she had in the pit of her stomach was butterflies. It was a feeling she had never experienced before and she wasn’t sure yet from where it came, though she had every intention of finding out.

It was a Monday morning and Jesse had some work to catch up on, so the two ate a quick breakfast before showering and then they were on their way out the door. He drove her to Weston to pick up her car so she didn’t have to take a taxi like she had done to get home from the hospital the night before. From there he was off to work, so they said their goodbyes; him still planning to come and stay with her again that night. He didn’t want her to be alone or frightened and the truth of the matter was that he was now and had always been deeply in love with Grace; him hoping that the current living – and sleeping - arrangements would lead to something permanent, though he was terrified of broaching this subject with her. The poor man wasn’t sure how to verbalize the three simple words I love you, but desperately wanted to take that plunge before it was too late; before he lost her to someone else again. He had lost her countless times before and he didn’t want that to happen this time.

Grace drove directly to the hospital; leaving Casey back at the house to see how she tolerated spending a day there alone. She was so nervous about the conversation she was about to have with Adrienne that she was actually biting her fingernails; a habit she had broken herself of long ago that had apparently decided to resurface. She was able to locate the diary; it actually being exactly where she had left it before she was kidnapped; so she brought it with her in the hopes that it would help jog her memory. The thought of her cousin not remembering what she had meant to say in the diary entry concerned her; though her memory appeared to be mostly intact; with the exception of that dreadful morning. That at least gave her hope. Truthfully, she wasn’t sure how much more disappointment she could handle in her life. She had no idea that this was about to be put to the test in a big way. Everything she had been through since arriving in town would seem insignificant next to the information she was about to receive.

She found her cousin wide awake in her hospital bed; looking bored already and ready to get out of there and go home. They spoke briefly about what the doctor had said this morning; Adrienne telling her with a grin from ear to ear that he had informed her that once he was satisfied that the swelling in her head had gone down the rest of the way he saw no real reason to keep her there. According to her, his thoughts were that she would probably recover a lot faster at home, surrounded by familiar things. Apparently she still had no memory of the shooting – and hopefully she never would; especially if her father was the guilty one. Home represented for her the good, comfortable, familiar things in her life due to her lack of recall; not the place where her father had ended his own mother’s life before walking upstairs to try to do the same to her…to his own daughter. Grace could not imagine what she must be going through emotionally. She never knew her father and her mother wasn’t perfect, but at least she loved her; unlike Caroline, who had never really loved Adrienne at all.

Holding out for as long as she could bear, she finally had to ask her cousin the question she had wanted desperately to ask her since the moment she read it in her diary. She was at first at a loss for words; struggling to find just the right ones. In reality, it was a question her cousin didn’t have to answer if she didn’t want to do so; it being written in a book that was meant to forever remain private and only for her eyes. It had been an invasion of her cousin’s privacy and she truly hoped that she wouldn’t be angry or offended that Grace read it. Deciding it was best to simply get it over with instead of brooding about it any longer, she took a very deep breath, held it for ten seconds, hopefully blowing her nervousness out with her breath.

“Addie, I have something I need to ask you and it’s really important.” she began, “You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to, but I’m sincerely hoping you can and will answer.”

“Grace, what?” teased Adrienne until she took note of the serious expression on her face. “What is it? You know you can always ask me anything.” she reassured her cousin.

“Please don’t be angry with me, but while you were still in a coma, well…well, I was so confused by everything that had happened and I was just looking for answers anywhere I could find them.” said Grace apologetically.

“I’m not going to be angry, Grace. I promise.” she said, “You can tell me. It’s okay.”

“All right then. Here goes. When you were still in a coma I found your diary in your room; which I cannot believe the police missed when they searched the house. But, anyway, I read some of the entries to see if they possibly contained some clues as to why you were shot. And one in particular – the last one you wrote…the night before the shootings – I wanted to ask you about something you wrote. Do you remember what you wrote about?” she inquired of her.

“The secret I’ve been keeping from you…for the past ten years.” replied Adrienne; an enigmatic expression on her face.

“Yes.” she told her; tiny beads of sweat forming on her forehead out of anxiety. “Yes. I want to know the secret…if you want to tell me. If not, I won’t be angry, I swear.” she responded.

“Grace, it’s okay. I’ve wanted to tell you since the very first day. I just couldn’t.” began her cousin, “I’m so sorry for that and I hope someday you can forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive, Addie. I know you would’ve told me if you could have.” she replied.

“Okay…here goes. The secret is…oh, God this is hard…the secret is that your mother did not commit suicide.” she got out; not certain what reaction she was going to get from Grace.

“Wha..what…what are you talking about, Addie?” she asked with a look of total confusion and pain crossing her face all at once as she spoke the words. “How did she…how did she die then? And how do you know that she didn’t kill herself? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure, Grace. I’m so sorry. And I know because I saw her…because I saw her get killed.” she admitted; the guilt of it all almost more than she could bear. She couldn’t stand to see the pain on her cousin’s face.

“What exactly did you see?” she inquired; somewhat afraid of hearing the answer, though she knew Adrienne would never have kept something like this from her without a damn good reason.

“It was Dad. They were in the barn at Gram’s…fighting. I don’t know what they were arguing about this time. I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Then, all of a sudden…he just lost it. He grabbed her by the throat and he wouldn’t let go. He just wouldn’t let go. Aunt Vivienne was fighting like hell, but he overpowered her, then…then he…he strangled her until she passed out.” she rattled off quickly; scared she wouldn’t be able to get it out otherwise. “Then he hung her from the rafter to make it look like she killed herself.”

Grace was crying so hard that she couldn’t say anything; couldn’t respond to the life changing information she had just received. She was trying to process her feelings; having thought for the past ten years that her mother took her own life. Now finding out that it was all a horrible, inexcusable, unforgivable lie that was told in an attempt to cover up an even more unforgivable and senseless act of violence that resulted in the death of her mother, she realized that nearly her entire adult life had been based on that lie and that horrible act. She felt robbed of the life she should have had; whether she was close to her mother or not. She could have had a living parent and would have been spared years of anger and sadness; a life filled with confusion and uncertainty. Maybe her life wouldn’t have been perfect, but it certainly would have been more livable.

When she was finally able to speak, she said to her cousin, “I’m not mad at you, Addie. I know your dad and I know that he would never have let you tell me. I just feel so…so cheated of someone who could have still been in my life. Cheated of my mother. He robbed you of your life, too, you know.”

“Grace, if I said I’m sorry every day from now until the day I died, it wouldn’t be enough.” Adrienne apologized. She wished more than anything that she could take the pain away for her cousin, but knew that was impossible. “I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry I lied to you.”

“I don’t blame you, honey.” she replied honestly, “I just can’t believe that he really did it. I thought there was no way he could be the one who killed Gram and tried to kill you…but now…now I’m starting to think that he is the one responsible. I guess we both have hurt to deal with, don’t we? You have to know that your own father wanted you dead just to keep his awful secret and I have to know that before he killed Gram and tried to kill you, he did manage to kill my mom.” she said; a sad look on her face; tears still staining it red – stinging as they ran into the scrapes and scratches marring her beautiful complexion.

The two cousins sat and talked for hours; both dealing with the events that had happened – in the near past and many years ago. They discussed the fact that they now felt a responsibility to hand Adrienne’s diary over to Detective Scheffield; along with an explanation of the passage’s meaning. This meant that they had to inform him that Chris Devereaux was responsible for another murder; her mother’s murder. Grace wasn’t certain whether that information would help the prosecutor with the current case or not, but knew she and her cousin had to give it a shot. If it helped, it helped. If not, at least the awful secret was out and she now knew the truth about her mother’s death; also knowing that her uncle was going to have to answer for it. It had been plaguing her for the entire ten years Vivienne Devereaux had been gone; having to wonder the whole time why – why her mother killed herself and left her already troubled daughter behind. The knowledge that it was not her choice to leave this world changed Grace completely; in the blink of an eye. Not knowing the reason that a loved one decided death was a better option than life is a hundred times harder with which to live than simply dealing with a death in the family; a death that came with answers as to why it happened. One thing of which she was certain was that – regardless of the charges pending against him now – her uncle would be spending the rest of his life behind bars anyway; no matter what the outcome of the current trial. He would get a hefty sentence for the murder of her mother, Vivienne; especially considering the circumstances – him murdering his own sister in cold blood and allowing everyone to believe she had done the terrible deed herself. It shouldn’t be a problem getting a conviction; especially with a credible eye witness. There was no way out of that one, she thought with a feeling of satisfaction. What went around…was coming back around as Karma worked its magic.    

Detective Scheffield was just finishing up the report he prepared regarding Grace’s kidnapping; this leaving him with little else to do that was pressing. He was still waiting for the results of the hair samples analysis to come back from the lab; though he wasn’t sure this would tell them anything at all that was helpful to the case against Chris Devereaux. Unfortunately, the closest lab that took on that sort of work was in Raleigh; the closest big city to them; which was still a good distance away from the little known town of Aurora. Not to mention the backlog of work they already had to be analyzed; the hair samples the detective had sent in being at the bottom of a very long list. He wasn’t aware that he was about to receive some quite damning evidence against Chris; though it was not pertinent to the present case against him. If it were admissible in court, however, it could definitely sway the jury in a direction that was not favorable to the defendant. It was strange because he was just about to pick up the phone to call Grace and see how she was coping when his phone rang; her name coming up on the caller ID.

“Hi, Grace. I just finished up the report about your kidnapping. How are you?” he asked in greeting.

“Hi, detective. I’m…okay. Definitely doing better than I thought I would this soon after being kidnapped. Probably has a lot to do with Adrienne finally waking up.” she answered; then added, “But that’s not why I’m calling.”

“What’s up? Everything okay?” he inquired; not having a clue what she could have to tell him now that everything was starting to get back to normal in her life.

“Well…it’s about my Uncle Chris, but I’m not sure whether it will help this case or not.” began Grace, “I found my cousin’s diary when I moved back into my grandmother’s house…and the last passage she wrote was about a secret her father had been forcing her to keep for the last ten years.”

“Now I’m very intrigued.” he said; hardly able to wait for her to explain.

“He…Uncle Chris…he…he killed my mother.” she stammered, “Everyone thought she committed suicide – me included – but she didn’t. He…strangled my mother and then he put a noose around her neck and…and the bastard hung my mother from one of the rafters in the barn. And he doesn’t seem to feel a speck of remorse, if you ask me.” she relayed to him; her eyes wet with tears.

“I’m speechless. I’m so sorry, Grace.” he said; trying to find the words to express how he felt about what he had just been told without making it personal; which was very hard for him – and becoming harder every day. “Well, since we already have Mr. Devereaux in custody, all we can do is tack on the extra murder charge. Do you think your cousin would testify against her own father in court?” he inquired.

“Yes. I’m almost positive. She told me what happened…so my assumption would be that she believes he should have to answer for the unthinkable thing that he did.” replied Grace. “Do you want me to ask her?”

“No I’ll take care of that. I mean…you certainly can if you want to.” the detective said.

“I‘ll ask her as well, so if she says no I can try to change her mind; though I don’t think that’s going to happen. And I can let her know you will be getting in touch with her if you want.” she answered.

“Sounds like a plan.” he responded.

Then they said their goodbyes and hung up. Grace was in a daze; not knowing how to feel about anything anymore. Every time she began to believe things were finally getting back to normal and all of the bad things were slowly becoming things of the past, some other demons would come calling bearing bad news; intending to do whatever they could to ruin her already tumultuous life. It was not the typical bad things, either, such as losing a job or getting an eviction notice. These paled in comparison to what she had to find a way to accept and live with her entire life. She had naively assumed that Michael’s kidnapping her surely must be the end of an unbelievably bad string of occurrences. Again she was wrong. If she had to choose which event negatively affected her – hurt her emotionally - the worst, it would be having to live for ten years believing that her mother had chosen to leave this earth; believing that she hadn’t given leaving her daughter a second thought. Thinking Vivienne had not cared enough about her to stick around had changed her life in ways from which she would plausibly never recover; caused her to give up whatever dreams she had for her future because she no longer felt worthy – having the mother she had do something that her daughter would never live down in a small town. People still gossiped about the suicide; even ten years after the fact. Many of the townspeople avoided her and whispered things about Grace when she was seen in town; as if suicide were contagious. All of it changed the person she was meant to be into a depressed, unconfident woman who didn’t believe in herself enough to be whom she truly was.

Every bad thing that had happened since she arrived in Aurora she thought at the time had to be the worst thing – the last thing – that could possibly occur. Then someone would drop another bomb and she would be proven wrong. She couldn’t help but wonder what was coming next; now believing that there would be no end to her string of bad luck, or whatever it was. That morning she had been on cloud nine; thinking there was a good chance she had been with the love of her life since she was a kid and regrettably hadn’t noticed until now; though it was definitely not too late for the two of them to take a chance and find out if their being together was truly meant to be…was fate. She had always been a believer in fate; believing in the concept of the existence of a master plan for the universe; a plan that delivered to people the knowledge of their individual destinies exactly when they needed to know and not before. Of course this made for a world full of seemingly perpetually confused people before the deliverance of their ‘awakenings’. This time the receipt of bad news made her want to stick around instead of run like she typically did when things weren’t going her way. This time she planned to ride it out and see what happened. She was tired of running and simply couldn’t do it anymore.

From the police station Grace went home to start dinner; knowing that Jesse would be home from work soon. Actually cooking was more an attempt to busy herself to keep her mother and the whole situation off her mind for the time being. Also, she was curious to see how things played out between the two of them; getting butterflies in her stomach thinking about him and her newfound attraction to her best friend. She intended to make this dinner a romantic, candlelit dinner and see if he made that first move; though she still believed she was going to have to do that.

Jesse arrived at her house just as she was putting the final touches on her attempt at a romantic dinner. She wanted to tell him of the decade long kept secret she had been told that day by Adrienne, but thought it would be better to try to get through dinner first; afraid that – knowing that – she would start crying and wouldn’t be able to enjoy the delicious meal she had prepared for the two of them. So she sucked it up and put a smile on her face as he walked into the kitchen; where he could tell she had been hard at work; chuckling quietly about the mess she had created. Typical Grace, he thought; feeling even more love for her at this moment; realizing that she was doing things she did not normally do. He actually wondered at this point if she were doing all of this in an attempt to impress him; show him that she, also, was feeling a different love for him than she had felt as his best friend for all those years. He knew that he wanted to find out if it was so.

To her pleasant surprise, she got through dinner fine; successfully suppressing the urge to blurt out what she now knew about her mother…and her uncle. They made small talk about his work and Adrienne’s finally returning to them – almost as good as new. Grace was seeing her lifelong best friend in a completely different light; really noticing for the first time how handsome he truly was; feeling a chemical attraction to him that she hadn’t known existed within her. She thought perhaps it had simply lay dormant for all her post-pubescent years; making its presence known when destiny decided it should. Believing that everything happened for a reason, she deduced that it wasn’t supposed to happen years ago. It was destined to happen now…and it certainly was beginning to blossom within her.

After dinner, Jesse went to clear the dishes off the table, but Grace stopped him; telling him they would keep. She told him she had another life altering tale to tell; him clearly intrigued by the look of ‘Oh, no not again” on his suntanned face. It was quite a difficult story to relay; her doing her best to get as many words out as she could between sobs. Despite her difficulty, she managed to tell him everything. She told him of how betrayed she felt; not by her cousin, whom she knew was forced to keep it from her, but by her own uncle. She loathed him and couldn’t believe that it was her own flesh and blood who had taken her mother from her; seemingly without a shred of remorse. Christopher Devereaux was born an evil person; his true destiny revealing itself to him now, she thought; now as he sat in a cold, hard, concrete cell; his only knowledge of the outside world coming from a television or the tiny window through which he could see a little grass and a few trees, but not much else.

Grace couldn’t stop crying so Jesse put his arm around her as they sat on the living room sofa talking. His hand gently caressed her shoulder as she talked and when she finally came up for air, using his other hand to delicately wipe the tears from her face with his fingers; this gentle act causing something to stir in her; a feeling she had never known having toward her best friend before now. He put his hand under her chin and tenderly raised her lowered face; her sapphire blue eyes meeting his hazel ones; her seeing a passion in his stare that she had never noticed before; wondering if he saw the same in hers because at this moment she was feeling something she had never felt; not in her entire life.

Jesse noticed the intensity in her eyes and took her face gently in his hands and leaned in; his lips at first only lightly brushing against her soft, full lips; tentative in the beginning. She responded with a fierceness he had not expected; kissing him back deeply; her tongue exploring his sexy mouth without reservation. He reciprocated; kissing her like no man ever had; with a passion he didn’t know existed within him. He had waited for this moment for so long; feeling a love for her that he had felt since they hit puberty, but the picture he had in his mind couldn’t compare to what he was feeling right now.

Without warning, he scooped her up in his strong arms and carried her upstairs to her bedroom; laying her down on the bed and stretching out beside her; kissing her more deeply than he had downstairs; any inhibitions he had before melting away with the heat of his desire for her. His hands began to roam her perfectly toned, incredibly sexy body and hers began to do the same on his well-chiseled one; running her fingers lightly across his skin at first; tentative as well, though this quickly dissipated as her lust for him increased and she explored his muscular body with no inhibition. She was not thinking now – only feeling – and she wanted this to happen so badly now that nothing else mattered at this very moment; not even her murderous uncle.

He started to peel off her clothes and got absolutely no resistance from her, as she was doing the same with his. She had not imagined this, but after that first kiss she felt no awkwardness like she thought she probably would in such a situation. It felt like the most natural thing in the world and – though she was not thinking about it right now – she would come to the realization that her best friend was no longer simply her best friend. He was the love she would believe was her destiny. Now she was enjoying very much the turn of events; putting into it every ounce of lustful energy she never knew she possessed.

They made love passionately for hours; neither thinking about a single, terrible thing that had happened over the last week and a half; only exploring each other’s bodies with their hands and their lips and tongues. Jesse was ecstatic that his dream had come to fruition after all those years of having to love her from afar. He much preferred loving her with no distance between them; their bodies intertwined as one the way he felt in his heart they were meant to be; as they were now…hot and sweaty and finally satiated.